Midjourney Internship 2027–2028: Programs, Deadlines & How to Apply
Last updated: July 2026
Midjourney has raised $0 in venture capital, reached an estimated $10B valuation, generates $300M to $500M in annual recurring revenue, and operates with roughly 60 employees. That works out to $3M to $5M in revenue per employee, among the highest figures in software history. The company's careers FAQ says internships are 'rare, but we do have some.' There is no formal internship program, no cohort dates, and no dedicated application portal. For the 2027–2028 cycle, opportunities arise ad hoc, and most hires enter through professional networks rather than cold applications. Getting in starts with being visible in the right places long before a role is posted.
Quick Facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Where to apply | midjourney.com/careers and jobs.ashbyhq.com/midjourney. Also email careers@midjourney.com with a strong portfolio |
| Application window (2027–28) | No fixed window. Internship opportunities arise ad hoc. Monitor the careers page and Ashby board continuously. No recurring application cycle has ever been documented |
| Rolling? | Effectively yes. There is no structured cycle. Most hires enter through professional networks, open-source communities, or the Midjourney Discord server rather than a standard application portal |
| Eligibility | No minimum degree requirement. Portfolio and projects valued over resume and credentials. High schoolers to senior professionals considered. Self-direction and proactivity required |
| Duration | Not confirmed. Estimated 10 to 16 weeks based on industry norms for comparable AI lab internships |
| Compensation | Not publicly disclosed. Estimated $50 to $70 per hour ($8,000 to $11,200/month) based on full-time backend engineer salaries ($175K to $200K) and typical AI lab intern-to-FTE ratios. Confidence: low |
| Visa sponsorship | Yes, confirmed in careers FAQ. H1B/LCA filings submitted historically for Software Developers and Computer/Information Research Scientists |
| Locations | San Francisco (HQ), London, and New York. Remote-first culture; 'The Bay Area and London are best, but we're open to remote work.' Medical division is on-site in SF only |
| # Programs | No formal intern programs. Potential tracks map to three company teams: Infrastructure, Midjourney Product, and Midjourney Medical, plus undisclosed projects |
Midjourney does not run a formal internship program. The careers FAQ says internships are 'rare, but we do have some.' With roughly 60 employees and no structured recruiting cycle, any intern spot is exceptionally rare. Portfolio strength and network visibility matter more than a polished resume.
Externships are short, remote projects where you finish real work for a real company. The Wayfair AI Agent Engineering Externship and Beats by Dre Data Analytics Externship build the engineering and data portfolio evidence that Midjourney's project-first hiring philosophy specifically rewards. Explore all Externships.
What Is a Midjourney Internship?
A Midjourney internship, to the extent one exists, is a rare placement at a self-funded AI lab that generates hundreds of millions in revenue with roughly 60 people. The company's careers FAQ says internships are 'rare, but we do have some,' and no formal program with cohort dates or a named intern class has ever been publicly documented. Midjourney was founded as a remote-first company by David Holz, previously co-founder of Leap Motion, and communicates heavily through Discord. The hiring philosophy is explicit: 'The best people are self-directed, communicative, and highly proactive. We look at your projects or portfolio much more than at your resume and job history and oftentimes we have seen and admired your work already.' That last line is the core insight. Midjourney hires people whose work they have already noticed, which means the path to an internship runs through building visible, excellent work in AI, generative models, or creative technology long before any role is posted.
When Do Midjourney Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?
Midjourney does not follow a predictable internship calendar because no formal internship program exists. There are no documented application open or close dates, no cohort start dates, and no recurring cycle. The company's hiring model is network-driven and ad hoc: opportunities surface when the team identifies a need and a candidate simultaneously. The practical implication is that preparation is continuous, not seasonal. Build your portfolio, engage with the community, and monitor the careers page year-round. The timeline below reflects the best available guidance for making yourself a candidate Midjourney might notice.
No Midjourney internship postings are live, and none may appear on a fixed schedule. Use this window to build portfolio projects in generative AI, contribute to open-source ML work, and establish visibility in Midjourney's Discord community and relevant research circles.
Monitor midjourney.com/careers and jobs.ashbyhq.com/midjourney continuously. Internship roles, if posted, could appear at any time. Consider emailing careers@midjourney.com with a concise introduction and strong portfolio link. Network at AI conferences and engage with Midjourney team members on social platforms.
Interview process (based on full-time patterns): network-based discovery or portfolio review, a technical deep dive on past projects and architectural decisions, a practical problem session with collaborative real-world challenges (not LeetCode), and a final conversation with core leadership on mission alignment.
No standard program duration confirmed. Based on industry norms for comparable AI lab internships, expect 10 to 16 weeks. Remote-first with Bay Area and London as preferred locations. Perform well and the tiny team size means leadership already knows your work.
Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open
There is no 'week one' at Midjourney the way there is at a company with a structured recruiting cycle. The careers FAQ says internships are 'rare, but we do have some,' and most hires enter through professional networks, not a standard application portal. So the timing advantage is not about submitting early on a fixed deadline. It is about being visible to Midjourney's team before any opening is created. Contribute to open-source AI projects where Midjourney engineers are active. Become a known presence in the Discord community. Build creative technology projects that demonstrate the intersection of technical skill and artistic vision. Publish work in generative AI, computer vision, or diffusion models. Midjourney says they often have 'seen and admired your work already' before reaching out. The week-one move is making sure that statement applies to you.
Which Midjourney Internship Programs Should You Target?
Midjourney has no formal internship programs with named tracks or cohort dates. However, the company is organized into three teams plus undisclosed projects, and any intern opportunities would map to these areas. The tracks below are projected from current full-time openings and the company's known divisions, not from confirmed intern postings.
| Area | Focus | Duration | Key skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Research (hypothetical) | Deep learning, computer vision, generative AI, large-scale model training, diffusion models, and neural rendering | 10 to 16 weeks (est.) | Deep learning, computer vision, diffusion models, reinforcement learning, applied research engineering |
| Infrastructure | Data center and cluster management, inference optimization, large-scale cloud systems, GPU job orchestration and scheduling | 10 to 16 weeks (est.) | Distributed systems, GPU scheduling, inference pipelines, observability, operational tooling |
| Product Engineering | Web and mobile product design and engineering, API design, backend systems, feature prototyping | 10 to 16 weeks (est.) | Backend engineering, API design, data modeling, cross-service architecture, AI development tools |
| Design | Product design at the intersection of creativity and technology, from UX to creative applications of AI | 10 to 16 weeks (est.) | Product design, UX/UI, creative technology, prototyping, design systems |
| Medical (SF on-site only) | Hardware, software, and ML for a new medical imaging system including full-body ultrasound CT scanner development | 10 to 16 weeks (est.) | Medical imaging, hardware ML, signal processing, on-site in San Francisco |
See current openings on the Midjourney careers page. As of July 2026, all listed positions are full-time roles targeting experienced professionals. The Medical division accepts open applications via a General Interest listing at midjourney.com/medical/careers.
What Are the Eligibility Requirements?
Midjourney's eligibility criteria are unconventional, reflecting a company that values demonstrated work over institutional credentials:
• Degree: no minimum degree requirement stated. The careers page says 'great people at Midjourney have started in high school just as often as they have come from notable companies and universities.' Portfolio and projects carry more weight than a transcript.
• Portfolio first: Midjourney explicitly states they look at projects and portfolios much more than resumes and job history. They often have already seen and admired a candidate's work before making contact.
• Self-direction: the company values people who are 'self-directed, communicative, and highly proactive.' A culture of 'work over ego' is emphasized.
• Visa sponsorship: confirmed in the careers FAQ. H1B/LCA filings have been submitted historically for Software Developers, R&D, and Computer/Information Research Scientists.
Does Midjourney Care About Degrees or GPA?
Midjourney does not list a GPA cutoff or degree requirement anywhere in its hiring materials. The company's explicit stance is that projects and portfolio matter more than credentials, and that great team members have ranged from high school students to senior industry professionals. This is not a standard disclaimer. Midjourney has roughly 60 employees generating billions in user interactions with no formal HR or recruiting department. Hiring decisions are made by engineers and the founder, David Holz, based on demonstrated work product. If your portfolio shows genuinely excellent work in AI, generative models, distributed systems, or creative technology, the degree line on your resume is secondary.
What Skills Does Midjourney Look For, and How Do You Build Them?
Pull together Midjourney's current full-time job listings and third-party analysis of their technical evaluation process, and the pattern is clear. Deep learning and distributed systems appear across every engineering description. Portfolio and self-direction are valued in every role. But the distinctive signal is what Midjourney does not ask for: there is no mention of LeetCode, no standard online assessment, and no algorithm puzzle gauntlet. Instead, interviews are collaborative technical conversations about real problems the team is solving, such as GPU job orchestration and real-time inference scaling. This company evaluates whether you can think through production systems, not whether you memorized a sorting algorithm.
What Midjourney looks for in interns
Skills across 8 Midjourney intern & analyst job descriptions · 2025–26 Midjourney full-time JDs and technical evaluation analysis, projecting 2026–2027
Method: full-text analysis of 8 Midjourney job descriptions across Backend Engineer, Product Designer, Product Manager, Engineering Manager, QA, Product Lead, and Design Lead roles plus TechPrep interview process analysis. No intern-specific JDs exist; chart reflects full-time requirements projected to intern evaluation criteria.
How Is Demand for AI Research Interns Moving Right Now?
AI and software engineering intern hiring right now: July 2026
Across US software-engineer-intern postings tracked this week · aggregate market data, all employers
July 2026 is this tracker's baseline month, so month-over-month shifts show up at the August update. The signal today is level: intern demand is steady, and the ML-heavy segment Midjourney occupies pays at the top of the range.
Method: aggregate analysis of US software-engineer-intern, machine-learning-intern, and software-engineer postings via Adzuna, July 2026 baseline. The sample indexes a fraction of all US postings, so figures show direction and relative level, not total market share.
Build These Skills Before You Apply
And every skill in that chart maps to a remote Externship where you finish a real project before an opportunity surfaces.
| Skill (from real JDs) | JD evidence | Externship that builds it |
|---|---|---|
| Backend engineering, distributed systems & API design | Engineering JDs: "production backend systems under real traffic, API design, cross-service architecture" | Wayfair AI Agent Engineering |
| Data analysis, metrics & quantitative reasoning | Product & QA JDs: "data modeling, observability, operational tooling, analytical reasoning" | Beats by Dre Data Analytics |
| Portfolio-ready project work & communication | All JDs: "portfolio/projects over resume, clear communication, cross-discipline collaboration" | Wayfair AI Agent Engineering |
How close is the overlap? Midjourney's hiring philosophy explicitly values finished projects over credentials. The Wayfair Externship produces a portfolio-ready engineering artifact, and the Beats project delivers the data story a product-minded team appreciates.
What Is the Midjourney Application and Interview Process Like?
Midjourney's hiring process does not follow the standard apply-OA-interview pipeline. Based on TechPrep's 2026 analysis of their full-time process (no intern-specific process has been documented):
1. Build visibility before applying. Most candidates enter through professional networks, open-source communities, or active participation in Midjourney's Discord server. Being a known entity in the right circles matters more than a polished resume submission. Cold applications via careers@midjourney.com are accepted but are a less common path in.
2. Technical deep dive and portfolio review. Midjourney reviews your past work in depth, especially projects involving high-performance distributed systems, infrastructure, or AI-adjacent backend work. Expect to discuss specific architectural decisions and trade-offs from your projects in detail.
3. Practical problem session. Collaborative technical conversations about real problems the team is solving, such as GPU job orchestration and real-time inference scaling. This is explicitly not LeetCode-style coding. Think scheduling problems, graph traversal, concurrency challenges, and cache management grounded in production context.
4. Leadership and vision alignment. A final conversation with core leadership, potentially including founder David Holz, assessing alignment with Midjourney's mission and exploring why you care about the intersection of technology and creativity.
The critical takeaway is that Midjourney's evaluation is not something you cram for. The company does not use standard online assessments or LeetCode exercises. Their technical conversations address real problems at the scale they operate, and the portfolio review assumes you have already built things worth discussing. As TechPrep puts it: 'Midjourney is not a company you can prepare for with a last-minute LeetCode sprint.' Preparation means having years of visible, excellent work in AI, systems, or creative technology.
What Students on Reddit Say
Three community threads illuminate what working at or alongside Midjourney looks like, all paraphrased.
Community members question how Midjourney can operate with only a handful of full-time staff, especially after launching a video product. The consensus is that the publicly cited figure is outdated or reflects only core team members, while the actual headcount including contractors is higher, though still remarkably small for the company's revenue.
Users point out that Midjourney, despite being highly profitable, relies on unpaid community volunteers for Discord moderation and support functions rather than hiring paid staff for those roles. The discussion raises questions about how the company allocates resources given its revenue per employee.
A 3D artist describes how generative AI tools have transformed their industry, noting that a company with just a handful of people built technology that reshaped workflows for millions. The thread illustrates the outsized impact Midjourney achieves with its lean team and the kind of work an intern would be contributing to.
How Do You Stand Out When There May Be Zero Openings?
Three moves, and all of them happen long before any listing appears. First, build visible work in the spaces where Midjourney's team is active: contribute to open-source generative AI projects, publish research in computer vision or diffusion models, or create notable tools and creative works using Midjourney's own API. The company says they have often already seen and admired a candidate's work before reaching out. Second, engage with the Midjourney Discord community as a power user or contributor, not just a consumer. Many hires are discovered through community involvement, and visibility there is a genuine pathway in. Third, focus your portfolio on the intersection of technology and creativity, because Midjourney's final interview round with leadership explicitly explores why you care about that intersection. A finished project that demonstrates both technical depth and creative application is worth more than a degree from any university. And remember: with roughly 60 employees and $3M to $5M revenue per person, every hire including interns is personally evaluated by engineers and leadership. Make your work impossible to ignore.
What Other Companies Should You Consider?
Midjourney occupies a unique position as a self-funded, profitable AI image generation lab. If you are building a generative AI internship list, these are the closest comparisons:
- OpenAILarger research lab with formal intern programs and more structured application cyclesGuide →
- AnthropicSafety-focused AI lab with research internships, more structured than Midjourney but similarly selectiveGuide →
- Google DeepMindLargest research cohorts among AI labs, with formal recruiting cycles and broader research scopeGuide →
- AdobeCreative-tool AI research with Firefly, closer to Midjourney's product space with more structured intern programsGuide →
- MetaMassive intern cohorts with FAIR research track, more accessible application processGuide →
Our tech internships summer 2027 guide maps the whole landscape, timeline by timeline.
FAQ
Does Midjourney offer internships?
Midjourney's official careers FAQ says internships are 'rare, but we do have some.' However, no internship positions are currently listed, no structured program with cohort dates has ever been documented, and no named intern class exists. Opportunities arise ad hoc based on team needs.
How do I apply for a Midjourney internship?
There is no dedicated intern application portal. Monitor midjourney.com/careers and jobs.ashbyhq.com/midjourney for any intern postings. Build a strong AI or creative technology portfolio and consider emailing careers@midjourney.com directly with your work. Engagement in Midjourney's Discord community and open-source AI circles can also lead to opportunities.
How much do Midjourney interns get paid?
No intern-specific compensation data is publicly available. Based on full-time backend engineer salaries ($175K to $200K) and typical AI lab intern-to-FTE ratios, an estimate of $50 to $70 per hour ($8,000 to $11,200 per month) is plausible but speculative.
Does Midjourney sponsor visas?
Yes, Midjourney confirms visa sponsorship in their careers FAQ. H1B/LCA filings have been submitted historically. Whether this extends to intern-specific visas such as J-1 is not confirmed.
Does Midjourney require a degree?
No. Midjourney explicitly states that 'great people at Midjourney have started in high school just as often as they have come from notable companies and universities.' They evaluate projects and portfolios over resumes and credentials.
What is the Midjourney interview process like?
Based on full-time patterns: network-based discovery or portfolio review, a technical deep dive on past projects and architectural decisions, a practical problem session with collaborative real-world challenges (not LeetCode), and a final conversation with core leadership on mission alignment. No standard online assessment is used.
Is Midjourney remote-friendly?
Yes. Midjourney states 'The Bay Area and London are best, but we are open to remote work.' The company was founded as remote-first and communicates heavily via Discord. The Medical division in San Francisco is the exception and requires on-site presence.
How competitive is getting hired at Midjourney?
Extremely competitive. With roughly 60 employees, no formal HR department, $3M to $5M revenue per employee, and most hires coming through professional networks rather than applications, Midjourney is among the most selective employers in AI. Comparable in difficulty to DeepMind or Anthropic research positions.
Midjourney's careers page says they often have already 'seen and admired your work' before reaching out. Build that work now: a remote Externship produces a portfolio-ready project that makes you visible before any listing goes live.
About the Author
Bifei Wang has spent 17 years focused on human flow and the growth of young professionals, spanning international education, career training and coaching, and recruitment process outsourcing. Over 7 years at Extern, he has had one-on-one sessions with thousands of students exploring careers in consulting, finance, tech, marketing, and data, giving him a firsthand view of how the job market has shifted for early-career professionals and what it actually takes to break in.
